Bec, I have the same feeling as you, the diagnosis of PTSD was a relief to me, after being labelled "crazy," "overreacting," and "hypersensitive" for many years. It is very useful to me as a diagnosis and I do use it to label not myself but my reactions to thing, in a positive sense. So for example, today I had a stress reaction to something that intimidated me, and I went to tears over it afterwards. I began to criticize myself, and then stopped and told myself, "This is PTSD. I felt threatened and pushed into a corner, and I froze. It makes sense that I'm upset."

Labeling my behaviors as reflective of PTSD has done much to calm my fears of being abnormal or irrational. I do share the idea that it is a lifelong illness, but as Jim said, I think it's a matter of management. I hope to reach a point where I live with minimal symptoms and little reactivity.